Humans stop evolving?

[Michaelangelica]

you know thats just not right, you cut me too the quick. :shrug:

 

Yes, agreed, a very hurtful and sexist remark.

Who needs a hook?

Any old bit of string is fine.

The most beautiful Girl competition

 

 

 

Source & more pics:-

2007120547 | Miss Transvestite Thailand World 2005 | Weird

 

'She's' the Winner of Thailand's Miss Transvestite 2005 Contest.:doh:

[InfiniteNow]

Yes, agreed, a very hurtful and sexist remark.

Who needs a hook?

Any old bit of string is fine.

The most beautiful Girl competition

 

 

 

 

 

'She's' the Winner of Thailand's Miss Transvestite 2005 Contest.:doh:

 

Mike... Many of your pictures recently haven't been coming out correctly, including those above.

 

It appears you are trying to publish them from a local drive, or from your email file, and the forum cannot access them. Maybe publish to an online source, or... make attachments instead. :shrug:

[Michaelangelica]

Grumpy old brain

 

But some scientists say the development of the cortex has been too rapid. It's happened in a blink of an eye in the evolutionary time scale.

 

But while the cortex may have enlarged so much as to envelop the older structures like the limbic system, those older structures have remained unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.

 

For these scientists, homo sapiens are still on the lookout for the sabre tooth tiger at the cave entrance and the enemy tribe across the river. The limbic system is still reacting to stimuli the way it always has; with fear, anger and hostility, sexual attraction, and the desire for territory.

 

These older parts of the brain play a much larger role in our thought processes than we believe—but they're working below the threshold of consciousness, argues Stanford University professor Robert Ornstein in his book, The Evolution of Consciousness: The Origins of the Way We Think. He argues that the archaic brain dictates many of our responses to the day-to-day world. So when we get angry, scared, and aggressive, as we do in a range of day to day situations, it's the primitive parts of our brains at work.

 

And they're making life difficult for us, argues Ornstein. The old primitive parts, so necessary to fight off the sabre tooth tiger or the tribe across the river, are totally unsuited to the 21st century of industrialisation, mega cities and nuclear power.

The 'mike shot' was the first hydrogen bomb tested

The 'mike shot' was the first hydrogen bomb tested in 1952. The island where the bomb was detonated was vaporized. Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office

 

One of the greatest human achievements of last century was the splitting of the atom to produce a nuclear chain reaction that created enormous amounts of energy. That was our cortex at its finest. And how did our more primitive instincts view it? What a great idea for a bomb!

 

Five times last century the human species came close to nuclear annihilation from nuclear weapons. The closest was in 1963 during the Cuban Missile Crisis when during the US blockade off the coast of Cuba, US navy ships bombarded a Soviet nuclear sub, which almost fired its nuclear weapons, but decided to surface and surrender instead, avoiding a nuclear Armageddon.

 

Around the world there are still tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and hundreds of tons of plutonium and enriched uranium, potentially accessible to terrorists or rogue states.

 

This century we face another threat—climate change. Our airconditioned McMansions and our 4WDs are two more triumphs of the frontal lobes, but the C02 they add to the atmosphere threatens to raise global temperatures by five to nine degrees Celsius, turning temperate zones into deserts and displacing if not killing 90 per cent of the world's human population by 2100, argues British scientist and founder of the Gaia hypothesis James Lovelock, in his book The Revenge of Gaia.

Can we survive?

Will we survive our brain? - Features - The Lab - Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Gateway to Science

[NLN]

Your question is a good one, Tim.

 

Human beings continue to evolve, but we are beginning to control our own evolution at a pace that far exceeds that of natural evolutionary processes.

 

For instance, it is thought that sickle cell anemia evolved as a defense against malaria in certain regions of Africa. This adaptation naturally evolved over the course of thousands of years, and yet modern medicine will probably allow us to eliminate malaria from our genome in the present generation.

 

We humans are beginning to control our own evolution. Soon, technology will allow us to become whatever we wish to become -- good or bad -- and our evolution will no longer be determined by whims of nature.

 

Machines Like Us

[Boerseun]

Soon, technology will allow us to become whatever we wish to become -- good or bad --

I want to be Hugh Hefner!:snow:

 

Where do I sign up?:eek2:

[Nitack]

You all should really see the movie Idiocracy. It was meant as a screwball comedy and ended up being almost prophetic. I am sure most of the readers here will agree with me that it is in reality a horror film that is scarier than anything yet imagined in this world.

[Eclogite]

I want to be Hugh Hefner!:shade:

You want to be an eighty two year old man with a heart condition and an environment guarunteed to overstress it?;) This isn't the calm, logical Boersun we all know and love.

[freeztar]

You all should really see the movie Idiocracy. It was meant as a screwball comedy and ended up being almost prophetic. I am sure most of the readers here will agree with me that it is in reality a horror film that is scarier than anything yet imagined in this world.

 

I loved that movie. It is absolutely frightening....in a funny way.

 

I suppose the main message in that movie is not a lack of evolution, but rather a de-evolution.

[Nitack]

I loved that movie. It is absolutely frightening....in a funny way.

 

I suppose the main message in that movie is not a lack of evolution, but rather a de-evolution.

 

Exactly. In some ways we have actually stagnated evolution in my opinion. A hunter that could not see his prey used to stave, including his progeny. Now we get them glasses. Evolution is to something that can really be stopped as stated earlier, there will always be situations to adapt to, the next great super-bug will act to cull those with weaker immune systems. However our current level of technology I think invalidates some of our previously hard fought for evolutionary advances.

[InfiniteNow]

Not 100% relevant to the thread, but I can't keep from laughing every time I see this. I shared it somewhere else recently, but if you missed it, check it out.

 

 

 

YouTube - Richard Dawkins - Beware the Believers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaGgpGLxLQw

[Thunderbird]

Check this out, beyond all comprehension. :Glasses:

 

 

 

http://http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9192961033242832668&q=Science+is+wrong&total=1611&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=7 http://http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9192961033242832668&q=Science+is+wrong&total=1611&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=7

[Thunderbird]

even with the natural variations in the DNA, it would no longer be survival of the fittest. we wouldnt get any new traits we need to survive any better. the same weak traits like genetic diseased are still being passed down from generation to generation.

 

in ancient Rome, babies that were found to have something wrong with them were drowned because they wouldn't be usefull to society. this still allowed for natural selection. now though, that kind of thing is considered highly immoral. if society wants to adapt, maybe we should let the genetically impaired struggle themselves instead of funding charity organizations that help them survive. (sorry for the lack of morality)

 

Human Evolution is no longer about physical fitness, or survival of the fittest, in that we do not survive by the power of our physicality any longer, it is now all about societal cohesion.

 

This evolutionary phase we presently live is about the integration of formerly separate parts of civilization merging into a whole system that considers every diverse part as essentials to a whole.

 

This is how evolution works.... It has separate domains evolving, diversifying, gaining complexity, then merging becoming greater the parts.

 

This is not merely flower ideas but true hard facts of any evolving system.. This is how systems have always evolved. Its is more about how in sync an organism is symbiotically within the environment, how adaptable it is to change. Some of you out there still have the old outdated paradigms of dominants ringing in your head, and not realizing the landscape has changed.

 

The world system we live in today is one where cause and effects resonant globally, good or bad. this is ether our chance to become greater than the sum of our former parts, or self-destruct under the illusion that we our not already inextricably connected.

[Ahmabeliever]

I highly recommend our greatest minds take good care of themselves physically so we don't lose them all to a superbug and wind up with a planet of meathead ball players.

 

On evolution and us.... Note how a bacteria may exude a protein or other substance outside of themselves.

 

Well, we multicellular beings are creating outside of ourselves too. The computer had added greatly to the evolution of 'universal conscience', vehicles have greatly evolved our mobility, etc.

 

With all these gadgets to enhance our own progress we are indeed evolving at a great rate of knots, but they are not all we are 'exuding' outside of ourselves.

 

Toxins ad infinitum. What manner of creature we have seeded in the planets genetic pool is yet to be seen. Deformities in humans are common occurence, and many put down to our own by-products.

 

So we are speeding along our evolution, and simultaneously stunting it. Killing bugs doesn't help evolution, it determines we evolve no defense against them. The pre-cursors of those bugs may very well re-define themselves every time a version doesn't proliferate. Till we get one we can't kill.

 

Some envision the future human as a blob hooked up to a terminal. Hell, these guys already exist! Grandiose obesity is extremely common, but most of them are too embarressed to leave home. Did nature make these huge ponderous humans who can't dress let alone defend themselves.

 

I think we had a lot to do with this particular evolutionary branch ourselves, and natures blueprint was somewhat different. We are the ones forcing insulin tolerance upon ourselves with bad diet including all that GE processed wheat and damn corn starch the USA keeps putting in every foodstuff they possibly can.

 

We have both sped up and retarded evolution simultaneously, my 2 cents.

[Nitack]

I highly recommend our greatest minds take good care of themselves physically so we don't lose them all to a superbug and wind up with a planet of meathead ball players.

 

On evolution and us.... Note how a bacteria may exude a protein or other substance outside of themselves.

 

Well, we multicellular beings are creating outside of ourselves too. The computer had added greatly to the evolution of 'universal conscience', vehicles have greatly evolved our mobility, etc.

 

With all these gadgets to enhance our own progress we are indeed evolving at a great rate of knots, but they are not all we are 'exuding' outside of ourselves.

 

Toxins ad infinitum. What manner of creature we have seeded in the planets genetic pool is yet to be seen. Deformities in humans are common occurence, and many put down to our own by-products.

 

So we are speeding along our evolution, and simultaneously stunting it. Killing bugs doesn't help evolution, it determines we evolve no defense against them. The pre-cursors of those bugs may very well re-define themselves every time a version doesn't proliferate. Till we get one we can't kill.

 

Some envision the future human as a blob hooked up to a terminal. Hell, these guys already exist! Grandiose obesity is extremely common, but most of them are too embarressed to leave home. Did nature make these huge ponderous humans who can't dress let alone defend themselves.

 

I think we had a lot to do with this particular evolutionary branch ourselves, and natures blueprint was somewhat different. We are the ones forcing insulin tolerance upon ourselves with bad diet including all that GE processed wheat and damn corn starch the USA keeps putting in every foodstuff they possibly can.

 

We have both sped up and retarded evolution simultaneously, my 2 cents.

Tell us how you really feel :Glasses:

[Ahmabeliever]

tell us how you really feel

 

Okie dokie - see the bold bit, my stance on the question raised by the threads topic.

 

The emotive drive you read in my previous post is your interpretation of my stance. No problem.

 

What is that stance? That would, imo, be a better question.

 

It's all cause and effect with infinite possibilities. We both accelerate and mutate our own evolution through our inputs in many ways. Whether we are gaining or losing ground in the 'bigger picture' remains to be seen. We could be extinct in 200 or 2 million years, or severely depleted as a populace, or terraforming and populating other worlds, we could develop immune systems that laugh at what we call toxic today.

 

Even were scientists to have found a recent sedentary period in human evolution, in the scale of time, imo, it would merely represent an ebb.

 

We could very well be 'godlike' as time progresses. We need to experiment to understand the why's and hows of cause and effect, but we are also far too cocky considering how little we know, and this can cause many problems with our ecology, economy and more.

 

Godlike, to me, encases a full understanding of the workings of oneself, one's place, and one's world. I believe we will get there.

 

Trying, moving ever onward be it staggered or smooth, this is a far more relevant stance than paralysis by analysis.

 

But how to facilitate caution in the realms of the as yet unknown? One step at a time. We're doing it now and it's exciting stuff. Lot's of mistakes, lots of breakthroughs, breakthroughs that turned out to be mistakes, and vice versa. Just like evolution.

 

Damn the torpedoes!

 

Full steam ahead!

 

We got frontiers to conquer!

 

And that is how I feel. :)

[GeneralMotors]

its scary how rich and sucessful people normally choose not to have children whilst lower classes have large families..

 

However.. higher class people aren't necessarily smarter or better genetically :)

[maikeru]

I don't find it scary at all. It's more a matter of what people can and will allow themselves. There are too many of us--smart, pretty, successful, or not--in this world. As things are, the world cannot contain us all without dire consequences now and worse ahead.

 

Whether people choose to have more or less children often depends on the circumstances they are in and what their priorities are--i.e., what they can and will bear and where they can direct their resources. One of my friends in Italy would like to have several children and raise a large family, but he and his girlfriend cannot maintain more than one or two children, with their current income and living standards (in a small apartment). Any more children would place them under dangerous financial burden. If you live on a farm and need more labor, having more children might make more sense, as it did in the old days when people were colonizing or farming large tracts of land. You provide your own employment, food, etc. If you live on government welfare and have polygynist relationships, as some (strange) polygamists do in the "Four Corners" area of the US Southwest, you may even support dozens of children at no serious detriment to yourself (and a lot of detriment to the taxpayers--this is known as scamming the government).